Blood of the Kitsune
by Takenouchi Ryu
Summary: Definately AU. This is a Naruto harem fic Naruto gets as many girls as I want him to!. It also will feature an OC in later chapters. Read to find out more. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: Blood of the Kitsune

By: Takenouchi Ryu

**Author's Notes/Disclaimer: **First of all I don't own Naruto:( Now then, a few notes. All of the techniques that I happen to make up myself will have English names, while all Naruto techniques that I can find will have the Japanese equivalent. Basically, if I don't know how to say it in Japanese, I'll use English instead. This is my first Naruto fan fic of any sort, so please be gentle. This story takes place at the start of the two and a half year training trip Naruto takes with Jiraiya and proceeds from there. Listed below will are a few guides to help you better understand my fic.

Normal type/dialogue

_Thoughts_

**Kyuubi Speech**

_**Kyuubi Thoughts**_

What follows is a short list of the Japanese terms I know and am familiar with; they will be used in the fic periodically. If someone is fluent in Japanese and sees and error, please point it out to me so that I can correct it.

Aishiteru: I love you a la Japanese!

Baka: Idiot

-kun: Honorific for a friend who is male or a younger boy.

-chan: Honorific for a friend who is female or a younger girl; the only time I know this is used for a boy is when used by his girlfriend.

-san: Honorific for those who are older, smarter, or "better" in any way; very formal.

-sensei: Honorific for your teacher.

-sama: I'm actually not 100 sure about this one, but from context I've seen, this appears to be an honorific for someone older than you that is more friendly than formal.

-baachan: I actually have no idea what this one means, all I know is that Naruto seems to love using this when referring to Tsunade!

-teme: This is Naruto's personal nickname for Sasuke, and it means bastard! (All you Sasuke lovers out there can go blow yourselves!)

-niisan: If I remember correctly, this is an honorific for someone who you basically consider to be a big brother so-to-speak.

**Chapter 1**

Tsunade looked over the paperwork she had been handed by Jiraiya carefully before glancing up at the other sannin. "You actually think that bringing along this Hyuuga girl will help Naruto?"

"Yes I do, Tsunade. From all appearances, this Hinata has quite the crush on Naruto. That ought to make things interesting enough. I also think that they will work well together given the proper training. All that needs to be done is get Hinata over her shyness. Since she is a Hyuuga, she will excel in helping Naruto improve his overall taijutsu abilities. Besides, it'll be fun!" Jiraiya finished his speech with his eyes showing that he was thinking very perverted thoughts at the moment.

Tsunade managed to keep a hold of her temper and merely shook her head and sighed. Hyuuga Hiashi was not going to be pleased to hear that his oldest daughter was being sent on a training mission; especially after he found out who would be accompanying her. The Godaime sighed in frustration before waving the perverted hermit away, "Fine, have it your way, Jiraiya. Just don't come back crying to me when this little scheme of yours blows up in your face."

"It won't Tsunade, just you wait and see." Jiraiya replied as he turned around and walked out of the Hokage's office. There was much work to be done before he and his two new students were scheduled to leave. Tsunade grabbed the nearest bottle of sake and downed it in one gulp; this was going to be a very bad week.

"Can you please tell me why Hinata is coming with us again, Ero-sennin?"

"For the last time Naruto, I have my own reasons!" Jiraiya yelled at his student.

The toad hermit sighed in frustration at his student. Naruto had no idea how difficult it had been to pull this off. Hiashi had been extremely close to openly rebelling against Tsunade when he learned that his daughter was going to be training with the "Kyuubi brat." The puffed up fool had even tried to challenge Jiraiya for the release of Hinata from this assignment, with disastrous results. Who knew that a fifty something year old man could still move so fast?

Naruto paced about while waiting for the Hyuugas' heir apparent to arrive. In another thirty minutes Hinata could be seen running up to them with a backpack stuffed to the gills. "I….I'm sorry!" Hinata gasped while trying to catch her breath, "I h…had a bit of trou…trouble getting out of th...the house."

"That's OK Hinata-chan." Jiraiya stated, "I expected as much when your father came to me with his…..'concerns'."

Hinata blushed profusely at the mention of how badly her father had taken the news. She almost fainted when she noticed Naruto looking at her quizzically. The fact that Hyuuga Hiashi was one of his biggest opponents in Konoha had not yet drilled its way through Naruto's incredibly thick skull. After a few more minutes everyone was ready to leave and the trio took off through Konoha's main gate, keeping a roughly eastern direction.

For the most part the day went by uneventfully. The only real distraction was Naruto's incessant pleas that Jiraiya teach him a new Jutsu. The forest of Fire country slowly gave way to rolling plains as the group traveled ever further from their home. By about midday Naruto had finally shut up, effectively leaving everyone to their own thoughts. Jiraiya spent the rest of the afternoon planning ways to train the two genin while Hinata thought about Naruto the entire time. Naruto, meanwhile, was busy trying to figure out what new Jutsus he would learn.

Jiraiya had them stop to make camp for the night early in the evening. He sent Naruto out to collect fire wood and set a few traps around their perimeter so that he could question Hinata about a few interesting tid bits of information he had managed to get out of Hiashi. "Hinata-chan, how long have you known about Naruto?"

"W…what do you me..mean, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"You know full well what I mean. Your father told me just yesterday how he had broken Sandaime's law."

"Oh! He t…told me w…when I was s..st…still very lit..little."

"And yet you do not treat the boy with any animosity at all. In fact, you practically worship Naruto, don't you?"

Hinata gasped and actually did faint when Jiraiya implied his knowledge of her feelings towards the blonde ninja. Luckily Jiraiya had brought along some smelling salts and was able to wake Hinata back up with enough time left to continue his interrogation.

"Hinata-chan, I've been told that during the Chuunin exams you seemed to have a new found sense of self-esteem and confidence, yet now you act exactly as you did before the exams. Why is that? Surely you know that you must stop being so insecure if you want to succeed as a kunoichi and be able to keep up with Naruto."

"Ye..yes, Jiraiya-sensei."

"And the first thing you need to do in order to achieve that goal is to stop with the constant stuttering. Its driving me fucking nuts!"

Hinata could only nod at her teacher and listen politely as he explained a great many things to her. One: she needed to stop stuttering and have some confidence in herself. Two: Hinata's family style of taijutsu was unique, and she was actually very skilled in it. Three: How could she ever hope to win Naruto if she did not improve her self? That last statement drove the point home that Jiraiya was trying to make. Hinata promised to work her hardest at becoming more confident and to try to stop stuttering whenever she spoke.

By that time Naruto returned with an armload of firewood and the report that he had supposedly set enough traps to stop an army. Jiraiya seriously doubted that Naruto had set even five decent traps, let alone enough to actually be useful. To the hermit it seemed that as much as Hinata stuttered and acted like a fool around Naruto, Naruto felt the need to brag around the Hyuuga girl. Jiraiya filed that information away to mull over when he had more time.

The three shinobi enjoyed a small meal before retiring for the night. Jiraiya told Naruto and Hinata that he would take the first watch, followed by Hinata, and lastly Naruto. After carefully putting the fire out, Hinata and Naruto got into their sleeping bags and quickly drifted off to sleep. Jiraiya was left with only his thoughts for company.

_Naruto is starting to develop a much better control over his chakra, but he still needs to work on strengthening his mind. That boy's foolishness is going to get him self, or worse yet, someone else seriously hurt one of these days. Hinata has a sharp mind in spite of her low self-esteem, she just needs to stop being so damned shy! If my plan works out, then I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone._

The night soon gave way to dawn and Naruto dutifully woke Jiraiya and Hinata up. The Sannin told his students to get a fire going as well as some breakfast while he went to relieve himself. The pervert then disappeared, leaving Naruto and Hinata alone.

"I don't really know how to cook anything besides ramen, so I'll start the fire."

"O….Ok." Hinata stammered while poking her index fingers together.

_What is it with Hinata-chan and her constant stuttering?_ Naruto thought as he easily and quickly got a fire going. _She really needs to learn to believe in herself. I wonder what's keeping Ero-sennin? I hope he doesn't fall for one of my traps._

Just then a loud explosion was heard from the nearby grove of trees that Naruto had used to gather firewood the previous night. The two genin dashed over to where the sound had come from and found Jiraiya in a crater with his hair singed and holes burned into a large portion of his clothes.

"NARUTO!" Jiraiya screamed as he finally got up. "What the Hell did you do last night? I sent you out to set a few traps and gather firewood; not try and kill me!"

"Geez! Ero-sennin, I did warn you that I had set a large number of traps. It's your fault if you didn't believe me." Naruto shot back.

The Sannin shook his head and sighed at the boy's antics. When Naruto was not bordering on genius, then he was bordering on completely retarded! The boy really needed to learn to have some balance in his life. Somehow Jiraiya just knew that this was going to be a very, very long two years.

After a short breakfast, the trio was off again. Though this time Jiraiya led them deep into the heart of a forest they came upon. From a glance one could tell that the forest had been around for a long time. It was deathly quiet save for the call of a lone bird every once in a while. Sunlight could be seen filtering through the canopy high above. Jiraiya led his two wards through the forest for what seemed like hours before stopping.

"Ah! Here we are!" Jiraiya proclaimed.

"Uh, where is here?" Naruto asked.

"This is where we are going to be spending our first month of actual training!" Jiraiya answered whilst beaming.

"Training? Here? What type of training could we possibly do here Ero-sennin?" Naruto grumbled.

"Oh, there is a lot that the forest has to teach us. You'll just have to wait and see. First things first, I want you to go gather some more firewood Naruto. And this time don't put any traps up, we won't need them!"

Naruto nodded his head and dashed off to look for more firewood. Jiraiya waited patiently for a few minutes before breathing a sigh of relief. Now he could finally do some more planning in peace and quiet. There were, however, a few things that had been gnawing at his mind throughout the day though that needed to be addressed first.

"Hinata-chan, you were awfully quiet today. Even more so than normal, why is that?"

"Well, Jiraiya-sensei, I was thinking about all the traps I noticed. Naruto seems to have a real knack for them."

"So I noticed, but since when did he become that smart?"

"Naruto's always been highly intelligent. He just doesn't like to let others on to that little fact."

"What makes you say that?"

"Simple, Naruto's greatest advantage is that everybody underestimates him. Naruto knows this and even goes so far as to cultivate it. I've…been watching Naruto-kun for a long time, and I know that he's actually more of a prodigy than even Sasuke-san was."

"Surely that's not all you have to say."

"No, there is more. Naruto also works very hard at staying unpredictable. He is so determined to rise above the label the village has given him that he purposefully works on techniques that others think are useless. Look at the Orioke No Jutsu (A/N: Sexy no Jutsu for those of you too lazy to look it up yourselves.): most people think that it is the work of a childish mind; however, anyone with half a brain would see the genius behind it. I know of no man that can withstand it, not even my father. Naruto has learned to use his enemies' weaknesses against them, and a man's greatest weakness is ultimately thinking with what's between his legs and not his head. Naruto will do whatever it takes to win."

"Yes, yes; you are right Hinata-chan. That is why I want you to work with Naruto on his taijutsu abilities."

"Work with Naruto? But the only ones I could even begin to teach would be my younger family members! Naruto doesn't have the Byakugan, how could he learn to fight like the Hyuuga?"

"Oh, I don't want you to teach him how to fight like you, I just want you to teach him better chakra control. The Hyuuga family style requires a great amount of such control does it not?"

"Well yes, but I still fail to see how I can help Naruto-kun, Jiraiya-sensei."

"If you can teach Naruto even the basics of using his chakra in conjunction with his strikes, that would be a great advantage in a fight. Naruto doesn't necessarily have to be able to see and target specific organs. His chakra level is so high that he doesn't need to. He just needs to be able to deal a large amount of damage in a short period of time."

"You're trying to turn Naruto into one of those shinobi that finish their fights quickly!"

"Yes I am. The quicker Naruto finishes a fight, the better off he'll be. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about Naruto that makes me uneasy, and its not the Kyuubi!"

"As you wish, Jiraiya-sensei. I will do my best to teach Naruto. Though I don't think he has the patience for it."

"Trust me, he will." Jiraiya said with an unsettling grin on his face.

Hinata nodded her head and began getting some things ready to cook supper for them when Naruto returned. A few minutes later the blonde ninja walked back into their camp with an armload of firewood. He quickly got a fire going and then sat down while Hinata cooked their dinner.

After eating Jiraiya outlined their training schedule for the next month, "You wanted to know why I chose this forest to start your training in. Here's the reason: it will help both of you develop better chakra control."

"How's that Jiraiya-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"Simple, you will do almost all of your training while walking on the trees. Not only will you have to keep the necessary chakra control to stay on the trees, you will also have to simultaneously use your chakra for your techniques."

"Slave driver!" Naruto muttered as Jiraiya finished speaking. The toad hermit chose to ignore the genin and continued.

"Starting in the morning Naruto, you and Hinata will train together. Hinata is going to instruct you in the basics of their family style. If you actually pay attention for once and work hard you will be able to damage an enemy's inner coils system and their bodies as well."

Naruto responded in the affirmative and Hinata nodded her head in silent agreement while blushing. Jiraiya continued telling his students his lesson plan while they cleaned up their dishes and made sure to bury their leftovers deep enough to keep away any scavengers that might be in the area. Naruto and Hinata learned that they would also be doing some wilderness survival training while in the forest as well as learning a few new jutsus when they had demonstrated enough skill with the ones they already knew. A few hours later the trio went to sleep in preparation of an early and hard day ahead of them.

Naruto lay awake for a few hours after the other two shinobi fell asleep. _Hinata didn't stutter once today. That's actually pretty odd coming from her. I guess she's developing more confidence. Maybe I can learn how to force my chakra into an opponent's body like the Hyuugas. That would be a great trump card when we get back to Konoha. With all that chakra I can get from the Kyuubi, I'd be practically unstoppable! Next time Sasuke and I meet, I'll stomp his ass for what he did to Sakura-chan! I'll even be able to keep my promise!_ With that Naruto finally fell asleep.

The next morning Jiraiya woke Hinata and Naruto up at the crack of dawn and told Hinata that for the time being she was in charge of Naruto during his training. The Sannin then instructed her to take Naruto to a small glade about two miles to the north and begin his training. The two quickly ate a small breakfast and then proceeded to their designated training area.

"Wow! This is the perfect place to train Hinata-chan!"

"Yes, I agree, Naruto-kun. Jiraiya must have been here before."

"I guess so. So now what? How do I learn to fight like you?"

"First off I'll have to lecture you in the basics of the Hyuuga family style. Then we'll see about some hands on practice."

"A lecture! Do we have to?" Naruto whined.

"Yes, we do." Hinata replied in a stern voice, "You may be able to fool others with your stupidity act, but you can't fool me. We both know that the lecture will do you a world of good."

"And just how do you know that I'm supposed to be that smart?" Naruto retorted.

"Because, unlike a certain pink-haired girl who spends all her time pining over that traitor Sasuke, I've noticed a lot of things you try to keep hidden."

"Hey! Don't talk about Sakura-chan like that…..Wait a minute! What do you mean you've noticed things I try to keep hidden?"

"You've done a very good job of using our peers' stereotype to your advantage, but for someone as trained in studying others as I am you may as well be wearing a giant sign that says 'Hey, look at me! I'm actually a genius!' around your neck."

"You think I'm a genius?" Naruto asked astonished.

"Yes. Who else but a genius would use men's own weakness against them?"

"You mean you actually aren't offended by my Orioke no Jutsu?"

"No, its not that bad. To be honest, I find it pretty funny. Did you really make the Sandaime fall over and have a giant nosebleed?"

"Yeah, I did."

"I heard about it. I would've loved to have seen his face when you pulled that trick on him."

"Who knew my Ninja Harem would work so well?"

"You're also almost a master of the Kage no Bunshin."

"You think so?"

"Of course. The way you used it to beat Neji-niisan during the Chuunin exams was brilliant."

"Domo arigato gozaimasu." (A/N: That's the extremely formal form of "thank-you" in Japanese.) Naruto whispered, shocked that someone was actually acknowledging his skills for once. The only other people who had ever done that were Iruka-sensei and the Sandaime.

"Enough of that, lets get on with the lecture you're trying your best to get out of."

"Aw man!"

"Quiet! Now then, you know the basics of how my family's style works. What I'm going to teach you is the specifics of it. Basically, we force our chakra into our opponent's body at the exact moment of impact. If you can learn to do that, you'll be able to cause some very serious damage, Naruto-kun."

"So basically I'll just have to practice hitting stuff until I get the timing down right?"

"You'll also need extraordinary chakra control to pull it off. The amount of damage done is entirely dependent upon the amount of chakra you push in. If you only wanted to incapacitate your enemies, you would use very little chakra; while at the same time you could kill someone with one strike if you wanted to."

"Oh! So Neji-san was just toying with you during your match?"

"Yes. As much as he may have wanted to kill me, he couldn't bring him self to do it."

"That little curse seal on his forehead probably had a lot to do with it."

"You're right. My family has done many horrible things to keep our abilities exclusive to us. Most of our marriages are even arranged to "breed" stronger users of our Bloodline Limit."

"That sounds pretty harsh if you ask me."

"It is. I think that my family has become too arrogant. But enough of that, let's see you try forcing some chakra into that tree over there."

Naruto replied ok and then started striking the tree pointed out by Hinata. Try as he might Naruto could not seem to get the timing down right. After a few hours of the exercise, Hinata had him stop and rest for a while as they ate lunch. Afterwards the training began again. Naruto had as little luck after lunch as he had before and was about to give up when he got so angry that he caused the tree to explode when he struck it the last time.

"Wow, Naruto! That was a lot of chakra you just forced into that tree!"

"I didn't mean to. I was just so pissed that I couldn't do it right that I guess I overdid it."

"I see. I think we've just discovered something here. You learn new techniques quicker when you get mad at yourself. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

"I guess so. So now what do I do Hinata-chan?"

"Now you do the same thing, only this time you're going to be kicking a tree instead of punching it."

"Kicking? Can't I practice some of my jutsus for a while?"

"No! You'll have time to practice your jutsus after I'm finished with you!"

"Fine. Fine."

Naruto repeated the exercise on a different tree, this time kicking it until his feet were sore. Naruto managed to get the timing right on his third try, but kept on practicing anyway. A few hours later Hinata told him to stop for the day.

"That's enough Naruto-kun. You did excellently today."

Naruto beamed and scratched the back of his head while thanking Hinata for the compliment. He then replied, "I'm beat! You were right about needing precise chakra control Hinata-chan."

"See, what did I tell you. I was observing you with my Byakugan and saw that you were using entirely too much chakra even when you didn't have good timing. How you manage to stay walking right now is a mystery to me."

"Oh, I have my ways." Naruto replied to Hinata's last statement cryptically.

The two genin finished walking in silence and made it back to camp by early evening. They found Jiraiya in the middle of cooking dinner and writing another of his perverted books at the same time. "Ah! Hinata-chan, how did Naruto-kun do today?"

"Naruto-kun did fine, Jiraiya-sensei. He just needed to practice his timing today. I think that tomorrow he'll be ready to try sparring while tree walking."

"Well now, since you mentioned it, you can do that too Hinata-chan."

"Ero-sennin, you're lazy!"

"No, I'm not lazy. I've spent all day preparing for your next lesson you two. In three days you two will spend a week here in this forest without my self or the majority of our gear. You will have to depend on each other and use the forest itself to survive. If I were you I'd start planning for that right away."

"What gear do we get to keep with us?" Hinata asked her teacher.

"Since the weather's nice, you'll get one sleeping bag. Both of you will keep your pouch of kunai. You will also have some flint to use to make a fire. Other than that you will get one roll of twine and a knife to use to skin and cut up anything you may catch to eat."

"That's all? Why so little, Ero-sennin?"

"That's actually being pretty generous Naruto. There will be times when you're separated from the rest of your team and will have even less to survive off of. This is just a little exercise to let you see what it is like. I'll still be close enough that if you absolutely need me I can reach you. Think of this as a giant camping trip!"

The two younger ninjas looked at their sensei sarcastically and then went to bed. The two genin woke shortly after sunrise to the smell of cooking food. Both looked up sleepily to see Jiraiya cooking breakfast. After all three had eaten Hinata and Naruto headed towards a small river that flowed through the forest.

Upon reaching it they carefully eyed their surroundings. "This ought to be a good place to train Hinata-chan."

"Yeah, that river will make our sparring more interesting. Today we won't be using any jutsus except for basic Kawarimi (a/n: I hope I spelled that word right.)."

"So more taijutsu training then?"

"Yes. Now prepare your self!" With that Hinata activated her Byakugan and rushed Naruto.

Naruto quickly sidestepped and countered with a roundhouse kick aimed for Hinata's head. The kunoichi in turn parried it and slammed her palm into Naruto's stomach. He gasped as the air was knocked out of him and barely had time to parry Hinata's next strike, aimed for his chest. Naruto dropped down and performed a basic foot sweep and then followed up with a kick to her back.

Hinata grunted as she felt Naruto force his chakra into her and rolled to the side when she fell down. She looked up to see Naruto coming down from above, his fist raised to strike. Unfortunately he hit nothing but a log as Hinata used Kawarimi to escape. Naruto quickly scanned his surroundings and found his partner on a tree a few feet away. He ran up the nearest tree and then disappeared from view.

"Shit! Where did he go?" Hinata asked herself as she turned around in a 360. The genin found him at the top of a tree right next to hers and ran up hers to reach him. Naruto, however, was prepared for this and started running down his tree to meet her. At the last moment Naruto leaped towards Hinata and landed a spinning kick to her face.

Hinata temporarily lost control and started to fall off her tree. She managed to regain her footing in time to parry another flurry of attacks from Naruto. The kunoichi soon found an opening and used her palm to strike his chest. Naruto merely grunted and attacked yet again.

The two genin spent the vast majority of their day sparring against one another. After the first time Naruto forced Hinata back onto the ground, they made a game out of it. For every time they got the other onto the ground they got a point. The shinobi with the most points won. Finally, at sundown, the pair limped back into camp.

"You two overdid it today."

"Well, we got in a lot of good training though, Ero-sennin."

"Be that as it may you two are obviously suffering from the beginning stages of chakra exhaustion. I want you two to take tomorrow off and just rest. You'll both need it for your survival exercise the day after tomorrow."

"As you wish Jiraiya-sensei."

Hinata and Naruto plopped down and greedily ate their dinner before falling asleep where they sat; the only thing keeping them in a sitting position being the fact that they were leaning against each other. Jiraiya placed a blanket over his students' bodies and then got into his own sleeping bag and went to sleep.

**To Be Continued!**

**Author's Notes**: Well there you have it, my first chapter! The next chapter will primarily focus on Naruto and Hinata's little "camp out" in the forest. I'd like to take this moment to thank my good friend Steve Morrison (AKA: "fat bastard", inside joke between us everybody.) for being my editor. Thanks for all your help! If you wish to comment me directly then just drop me a line at my email: See y'all next chapter!


	2. Intermission

INTERMISSION

Sorry everybody, but Blood of the Kitsune is on intermission. For those of you from the US you'll understand this: my National Guard unit has been activated. I have my new laptop with me, but I don't have the chapter I was working on before on it. I can't do any updates until I get back home. According to my orders, that'll be around Sept. 30. So please be patient until then. See y'all later!


	3. Chapter 2

Naruto: Blood of the Kitsune

By: Takenouchi Ryu

**Author's Notes:** Well this is the start of my second chapter, yay! I'm starting it as of 19 April 2006. This chapter is going to focus mainly on Hinata and Naruto's survival exercise. For those of you all gung ho about action, deal with it. There will be very little to no "action" in this chapter. Chapter 2 is basically all about plot and character development. Any who, enjoy the fic! BTW: If you want the disclaimer, translation notes, and/or text guide, then just back track to chapter 1. I am not going to waste time retyping all that shit every time I do a new chapter. If I add a new word then I'll mention it. Now then, on with the story!

**Chapter 2**

The next morning Jiraiya woke Naruto and Hinata up at the crack of dawn. After eating a hurried breakfast, the two genin were blindfolded and led deep into the heart of the forest. When their blindfolds were finally taken off, neither Hinata nor Naruto had any idea as to where they were. Jiraiya explained that they would be staying there for the next week or so and that they would have to live off of the forest, literally. With that the toad hermit disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Well Hinata-chan, I guess we'd better start getting our camp site ready."

"Yeah, you're right. What should we do first, Naruto-kun?"

"Shelter definitely, then a fire pit. We may only have one sleeping bag, but we can still be reasonably comfortable."

"OK. How do we build a shelter?"

"Leave that to me!" Naruto proclaimed with his trade mark shit eating grin.

Naruto got started immediately and finished in about an hour's worth of time. The shelter was a type of hut in the shape of a tepee. It was covered in leaves and moss with a small hole left near the top in one side to let out smoke. The entrance was covered with a flap made out of some leaves that were water resistant. Upon completing his work Naruto stood back and nodded.

"Wow, Naruto-kun! I never knew you could do stuff like that! How did you learn to do that?"

"Until I was seven I lived in the orphanage. I spent a lot of nights stuck outside after I was 'accidentally' locked out. I learned the hard way how to make something to keep rain and such off of me."

"That's awful! Didn't the council do something about it?"

"The council would have preferred that I was killed the day I was born."

"That's not right! Somebody should do something about that. Why would they want you dead?" Hinata asked, feigning ignorance.

Naruto's face took on a pained look as he said, "That is highly classified Hinata-chan; I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to."

"Oh, Ok Naruto-kun. Now that our shelter is done, maybe we ought to scout around a little bit? We do need to find a source of water after all."

"That's a good idea Hinata-chan. While we're at it we can also start collecting some fire wood."

With that the two shinobi started exploring the area of the forest their sensei had decided to leave them in. They found a small river that led to a medium sized lake about ten minutes away. They also found lots of dead trees they could use for fire at night. Naruto and Hinata collected some fire wood and dropped it off at their camp before returning to the lake.

Upon closer inspection Naruto discovered that the lake was teeming with fish that could be used for food. He then showed Hinata how to make a simple spear out of sticks to catch fish with. They spent a good thirty minutes and were able to catch three fish. Naruto quickly gutted the fish and showed Hinata the best way to cook them. After eating their short meal the two genin made their way back to camp.

Once there Naruto and Hinata dug their fire pit and lined it with stones they had found on their way back. Once satisfied Naruto then pulled out a kunai from a hidden pocket in his pants.

"Naruto-kun! Jiraiya-sensei told us we could only have one kunai!"

"What if we lost that one? You should know by now that keeping stuff secret is a way of life for us. Besides, what Ero-senin doesn't know won't hurt us!"

"If you say so. Why did you have a hidden kunai on you anyways?"

"I always found it as a sort of safety blanket for me. Even if I run out of kunai during a fight I still have one left over to use in an emergency."

"Oh! That's actually a pretty good idea."

Naruto simply grinned at the compliment. The two spent the rest of the day setting up their camp before retiring at dusk to get some well deserved sleep. In a nearby tree Jiraiya was watching them while scribbling furiously on a blank scroll he had.

"Hmm….not bad at all. That will definitely have to go in my report to Tsunade."

-----------

Tsunade woke up suddenly as a rather large toad jumped up onto her desk and knocked over her bottle of sake.

"What the hell!"

"Yo. I have a message for you from Jiraiya."

"Good. Now give it to me and scram before I decide to take a liking to roasted amphibian!" the irate Godaime screamed.

The toad took the hint and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Tsunade cradled the now empty bottle in her hands and mourned the loss of her sake for a few moments before looking at Jiraiya's letter.

"Tsunade,

"Both Naruto and Hinata are making great improvements. Right now I've left them alone to fend for themselves in that forest we used to go to all the time. I told them it was only for a week, but they're having so much fun I just might let them stay for another few. Naruto has been teaching Hinata everything any decent shinobi should know about wilderness survival. Unsurprisingly, Hinata knew nothing of basic survival skills. Chock that up to Hyuuga arrogance I suppose. On a side note Naruto now knows that Hinata knows about the Kyuubi. I'm betting that you'll want a full description of the incident. That is what follows.

Naruto had been showing Hinata what kinds of plants were edible and which ones to avoid; while tree walking no less! During this one of the branches Naruto leapt to couldn't bear his weight and he fell. Unfortunately for him the broken part of the branch pierced his stomach. Hinata wanted to help him immediately but Naruto was being his usual stubborn self, much like Yondaime, and tried to refuse her assistance. He probably didn't want her to see his wound heal immediately and have to try to come up with an explanation for it. Hinata, of course, already knew about the Kyuubi and ignored his commands to leave him alone. She pulled out the branch herself and watched in awe as Naruto's stomach healed completely in less than half a minute. Naruto looked like he was about to panic when Hinata calmly told him that she knew. Naruto tried to act innocent but it wasn't good enough. Hinata told him how her father had told her the truth in an effort to keep her away from him. To say that Naruto was amazed that his 'condition' didn't bother Hinata at all would be an understatement."

Tsunade was interrupted from her reading when Sakura entered the room.

"Tsunade-sama, whatcha got there?"

"It's nothing Sakura-chan!" the medi-nin said while trying to hide the scroll.

Sakura didn't buy it and somehow managed to snatch the scroll from her teacher's hands. She gasped in surprise when she got to the part about the Kyuubi, "The Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto!? Is….is this true Tsunade-sensei?"

"Yes, it is Sakura. Even with all his skill Yondaime was not able to truly destroy the Youkai. The best he could do was to seal it inside a newborn infant."

"That at least explains why my parents always seem to be able to switch the subject whenever I bring it up." Sakura said shakily, "Why weren't we told about it?"

"The Sandaime made a law forbidding anyone to talk about it after he came out of retirement. Now it applies to you too. The only people that can know that you know are your parents!"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"You should take the day off and sort through this. Go on home and think about what you know."

Sakura could only nod and start to walk away when she was stopped by Tsunade's voice once more, "And remember that the Kyuubi is sealed inside Naruto; he is not the Kyuubi itself." Sakura looked at her teacher for a moment or two before turning around and continuing on to her home. Tsunade opened a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of sake. This was a bad week.

-----------

It had now been a week and a half since Naruto and Hinata had started their survival exercise, and Jiraiya had yet to show up.

"Damn it!" Naruto growled as he kicked a stone around, "Where the hell is that Ero-sennin!"

"You should calm down Naruto. I'm sure Jiraiya-sensei has a very good reason for not being here yet."

"He'd better, or I'll introduce him to the 1000 Years of Pain technique; log version." Naruto muttered darkly.

Hinata had noticed that Naruto seemed to act more like the Kyuubi than himself whenever he got too frustrated. Just two days ago Naruto had started literally tearing trees out of the ground when a rabbit managed to get out of the twentieth trap he had set. The Hyuuga heir could still remember the look on her friend's face when he first started randomly murdering trees. She did not want to see that again.

"Maybe Jiraiya-sensei got hurt."

"Yeah, and pigs can fly. I bet you he's probably at some town right now peeping on the girls in the bath houses. Stupid fucking Ero-sennin."

"Why not just use one of your toads to go spy on him?"

Naruto stopped pacing back and forth mid-step and jumped out of the ditch his feet had worn into the dirt. He ran to Hinata, grabbed the not-so-shy-anymore girl, and planted a kiss right on her lips, "Hinata, you're a genius! I should've thought of that sooner!"

Naruto finally realized exactly what he had done and let go of the dark haired genin, blushing profusely, "Sorry 'bout that Hinata."

"It's ok, really." Hinata reassured her blonde friend then continued in a barely audible whisper, "That was a dream come true."

"You say something Hinata-chan?"

"Oh? No! I didn't say anything Naruto-kun."

"Ok. Well here goes: Kuchiyose No Jutsu! (Summoning no Jutsu!)" Naruto made a small cut on his right hand and summoned Gamakichi

"Yo! What's up Naruto?"

"I want you to go find that stupid Ero-sennin and report back to me on exactly what he's doing."

"No can do."

"What did you just say?!"

"I'm sorry Naruto, but Jiraiya said that I couldn't do any such thing until your 'exercise' is over."

"Gah! Why you useless shit! Come back here so I can roast you!" Naruto screamed in rage as he chased after the diminutive toad.

Hinata could not help but laugh at the sight of Naruto running after the summon and screaming threats and recipes for toad. Finally Gamakichi just left and Naruto stopped running to catch his breath. Afterwards, the two genin spent the rest of the day training and gathering food. They finally hit the hay well after dark and fell into a deep sleep.

----------

Tsunade had just finished reading the latest report from Jiraiya when Sakura walked into her office, "Oh, there you are Sakura! How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay I guess." The pink haired kunoichi replied.

Tsunade nodded her head and motioned for her student to sit down. It was time to see exactly what Sakura thought of Naruto now that she knew about the Kyuubi, "Sakura, how have you handled that piece of information you found out?"

"At first I was really freaked out. I mean, come on, the Kyuubi is inside Naruto! It was hard to digest. Then I got to thinking about the missions we had been on together and the Chuunin exams. I never really paid that much attention to Naruto, so I never did pick up on the weird things he kept on managing to pull off. I think I'm fine now. It'll just take some getting used to, that's all."

"Good, very good Sakura. I see you haven't picked up most of the older generation's ignorance and hate. Naruto has had to endure much in his life."

Sakura merely nodded her head. Tsunade and Sakura had a long talk about Naruto after that. Afterwards, Sakura studied a scroll detailing the newest medical jutsu she would be learning. The rest of the day was spent practicing it until Sakura collapsed from exhaustion.

-----------

It had now been three and a half weeks since Jiraiya had first left Naruto and Hinata alone in the forest. By now both figured that Jiraiya was pulling one of his schemes on them and were not too worried about being left there for the rest of their lives.

During this time the two genin became very close. Naruto started teaching Hinata his trademark Kage Bunshin and Hinata had helped him further master the art of using chakra to enhance his strikes. The days seemed to go by rapidly as the shinobi's friendship grew.

The day started out normally enough, but by mid afternoon the sky turned almost black and the forest became deathly quiet.

"It looks like we're in for a storm Hinata-chan."

"I hope its not too bad Naruto-kun. What if water starts leaking through our hut?"

"You don't have to worry about that; I made sure that our hut would be able to withstand anything short of a tsunami."

Hinata trusted Naruto completely in the matter and so let it drop. The two did take some precautions though: they gathered extra fire wood and stacked it in one corner of the hut and made sure to gather enough berries and such to last them a few days.

The storm struck suddenly early in the evening; driving the two ninja into their hut. Naruto quickly set up a fire in a small pit and sat back to enjoy its warmth. The constant sound of rain fall on the roof of their hut became a rhythmic lullaby and the two soon feel asleep.

Hinata woke Naruto up a few hours later and told him that she was very cold.

"Well, I guess its your turn to get the sleeping bag."

"I don't want you to freeze either Naruto-kun!"

"I won't freeze, I'll be fine Hinata-chan."

"There has to be some way we can both keep warm without using all our firewood."

"I don't know. Let me think here."

Naruto pondered for a few moments on their situation before he remembered something that Iruka had once said, "I got it Hinata-chan!"

"You do? Good!"

"Well, I don't know if you'll like it though."

"It can't be that bad. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I remembered about one lesson Iruka-sensei gave us on wilderness survival. You were out that day because of something you had to do for your clan. Iruka-sensei told us that in extreme situations such as this, two people can share body heat to stay warm."

"Two people, do you mean share the sleeping bag?" Hinata asked while blushing.

"Um, yeah." Naruto responded while blushing as well.

Hinata knew that Naruto's idea would work out well enough, even if it made her extremely nervous. She agreed to it and the two leaf nin got into their one sleeping bag together. They tried as many different positions as possible, but since it was a mummy style sleeping bag (A/N: A mummy style sleeping bag is one that completely encloses the body except for a hole your face fits through.) they ended up having to face each other so they could still breathe.

Hinata and Naruto hugged each other tightly, finally able to get warm enough to begin to fall asleep. Naruto made sure that Hinata's face was closer to the opening of the sleeping bag. The two genin just laid there for a long while as the fire slowly dwindled, both lost in their own thoughts. Eventually the shinobi fell asleep. The two had come to rely upon and completely trust the other over the past month; little did they realize that with that deep of a bond two people can hardly stay "just friends."

Naruto awoke a few hours later when he noticed that Hinata was not next to him anymore. He bolted up right still in the bag and looked around, trying to see Hinata in the dim light, "Hinata! Where are you?"

"I'm over here." The kunoichi replied. Naruto saw that she was on the other side of the fire pit, and from the way she was shivering he could tell that she had been there for a while. The blonde genin got out of the bag and walked over to Hinata, "Hinata-chan, why aren't you in the sleeping bag? You'll get hypothermia if you don't get back in."

"I couldn't sleep, Naruto-kun. I've been thinking too much and I don't really feel all that tired."

Naruto looked at his friend with a puzzled look on his face, "What could you be thinking about that would keep you up?"

Hinata blushed as she tried to figure a feasible enough lie to tell him, "Just stuff."

"Just stuff my ass Hinata-chan. You know you can trust me. Now please tell me what's bothering you?"

The genin looked away for a few moments before turning her face back to her companion's and started, "What do you think of me Naruto-kun? I mean not as a kunoichi, but as a person?"

"Huh? Well, I think you're a great person Hinata-chan! At first you seemed a bit weird what with acting so shy all the time, but you've really changed since you came with Ero-sennin and my self. You're my best friend."

"Is that all I'll ever be to you?" Hinata whispered to her self, trying to be low enough so that Naruto wouldn't hear. Unfortunately for her Naruto did hear. It finally dawned on him: why Hinata had always acted so shy, why she quickly got out of that, why she did not try to castrate him for suggesting the body warmth trick he had learned. It also hit Naruto that he did not truly want to remain friends with the beautiful girl sitting next to him.

Thoughts spun rapidly through the Jinchuuriki's mind. What would her family say and think if they started dating? Would everyone else treat her like a monster too? Would he really be able to do that to her? What about Sakura-chan; was she not the girl Naruto loved, or at least he thought he did. Naruto looked straight into Hinata's eyes and knew that she did not care about any of that. She accepted him for who he was; she even thought that having the Kyuubi stuck inside of him was cool.

Naruto instinctively knew that this was a do or die moment. He could either let Hinata go or grab the chance for some happiness in his life. Naruto did the first thing that came to his mind: He turned around so that he was facing Hinata, cupped her face in his hand, told her "I don't want us to be just friends either.", and then he kissed her for the second time that day.

This was not the quick kiss from before, but a more passionate, emotion filled one. Hinata did not even have a chance to say anything as she felt his lips press against hers. She was in shock. Hinata recovered enough of her wits to know that she should at least return the kiss if she wanted it to continue. She wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and ardently kissed her best-friend-turned-boyfriend back.

The two kissed for what seemed like an eternity before they broke it. Hinata rested her forehead against Naruto's and said, "I thought you only thought of me as a comrade, a friend."

"How could I with what we've been through together now? You aren't scared of me in the least. I just never realized just how you felt about me before."

"What would you have done if you had known?"

"I probably would have stayed away from you so that you wouldn't have to endure what I was going through."

Hinata sighed before replying, "I had a feeling you'd say that. But you don't have to worry anymore. I'm not exactly the same shy girl I was just a month ago. I don't care what anybody else thinks." Hinata then hugged Naruto tightly, never wanting him to feel alone or outcast again.

Naruto finally remembered that they needed to get some sleep and get warm, so he took Hinata's hand and led her back to their sleeping bag. The two quickly fell asleep in each other's arms, a contented smile spread across their faces. Outside a toad quietly hopped away to give his report to Jiraiya.

The storm had passed by the time the two shinobi woke up the next morning, but neither felt like moving at the moment. Naruto and Hinata simply laid there, enjoying their cuddle session. Naruto was the first to break when he got up and muttered something about needing a bigger bladder and headed outside. The blonde gennin disappeared behind a tree to relive himself and when he got back Hinata was up as well.

"So what do you want to do today Hinata-chan?"

"I'm not sure actually. I've pretty much mastered the Kage Bunshin and you're about as skilled with your chakra enhanced taijutsu as you can get right now. Why don't we take the day off Naruto-kun?"

Naruto was about to reply in the affirmative when Jiraiya picked that exact moment to reveal himself, "So how was the experience my two students!?"

Jiraiya never had a chance to say anything else as Naruto's knee was driven right into the toad hermit's crotch, " Where in the hell have you been Ero-sennin?"

Jiraiya let out a lout soprano screech as he fell over and held onto his, busted, family jewels. Eventually the toad hermit was able to stand back up and spent the next hour yelling at Naruto to stand still long enough for him to return the favor. Finally the Sannin calmed down enough to explain, "Well, you two were having such fun that I took a few extra weeks to plan the rest of your training."

Naruto muttered something under his breath that sounded like yeah right and then asked Jiraiya where they were going next. After explaining the trio set off for a village nearby to restock on essentials before heading off towards some unknown area to finish their training.

**To Be Continued!**

**A/N: **Sorry bout the long wait everyone, but I got deployed with my National Guard unit and when I got back had way too much stuff to take care of to be able to finish this chapter. I'll start working on the next chapter ASAP though and hope to have it up within two weeks if all goes as planned. These first two chapters were mainly for introduction purposes, the next chapter really picks up the storyline as I've planned it so far. Please R/R or email me with any comments you might have. You can always reach me at 'Till next time y'all!


	4. Chapter 3

Naruto: Blood of the Kitsune

By: Takenouchi Ryu

**Author's Notes: **Well, I'm finally starting on chapter 3. Sorry its taken me so long, but a deployment will do that to you. This chapter is where everything truly starts to get AU and has the introduction of an OC or two. Any who, on with the fic!

**Chapter 3**

Exactly two and a half years later Jiraiya, Hinata, and Naruto returned to Konoha as planned. As the trio neared the village gates they noticed that not much had changed since they left, though the two genin had themselves changed a great deal.

Hinata was no longer the shy, low self-esteemed girl she had been before the trip. Now she was a strong willed, confident shinobi. Her mastery of her bloodline and family style of taijutsu had improved greatly, and she had picked up a few tricks from both her sensei and Naruto along the way. Her outfit had changed as well. She now wore slightly form fitting black pants, a short sleeved white shirt over a top made out of wire mesh, revealing a fair amount of cleavage. Hinata had learned first hand that being able to passively distract a guy in the middle of a fight was a good thing.

Naruto no longer was obnoxious and loud. Rather he had the silent air of someone who could kill you and knew he could. The blonde no longer wore his bright orange jumpsuit. He had replaced it with a pair of black pants and a black shirt with sleeves that ended mid-forearm, having learned to appreciate simplicity. His skills had grown exponentially as he trained under the sanin and Hinata. Naruto had managed to hone his taijutsu skills down to an art and could now kill an enemy with a single poke of his finger.

As soon as they entered the village, Jiraiya released Naruto and Hinata for the day and told them to meet him by the Ichiraku ramen stand the next morning. The toad hermit made his way towards the Hokage tower while the two genin headed straight for the aforementioned ramen stand.

Jiraiya quietly knocked on the door to Tsunade's office, having learned long ago that it was not the best of ideas to wake her up while sleeping. After hearing the reply to come in, the sanin entered the Hokage's office and took a seat in one of the chairs provided.

"So you managed to return in one piece more or less Jiraiya. Give me your official report first of all, then I have some extremely urgent news to convey to you."

Jiraiya nodded and began, "Everything went as planned Tsunade. Hinata is much more self-confident now and Naruto is tolerable, more or less. I'll start with Hinata's progress.

She quickly came to rely upon herself and trust in her own skills. In the few fights that we were forced into, the Hyuuga girl more than proved her worth. Her Byakuugan might not be as advanced as Neji's, but she is more than a match for him now. A good deal of that is thanks to Naruto; he's taught her many of the jutsus that he prefers, including Kage Bunshin. Their teamwork is perfect as well. The two seem to compliment each other naturally in their fighting.

Now as for Naruto: his improvement is by far the most astounding. Under Hinata's influence, the boy has completely dropped his idiot facade and doesn't try to make people underestimate him anymore. His intelligence rivals even that Shikamaru's and his skills are far superior to anything the Uchiha brat could ever hope to attain. The largest progress was in his chakra control though. I don't know how he did it, but Naruto now controls his chakra perfectly. The boy's conservation of it would put your apprentice Sakura to shame. I'm beginning to think he might have an emerging Bloodline. His inventory of jutsus has at least quadrupled in the past few years as well, along with the ways in which he uses them together. There is one thing that troubles me though: I can't quite place my finger on it, but he seems different somehow."

The Godaime nodded her head and closed her eyes for a few minutes in thought before replying, "Well Jiraiya, it seems that your plan didn't backfire after all. The change you noticed in Naruto is noteworthy, I'll look into it. Arashi left very little information about his origins, so it is very possible that Naruto does have a Bloodline ability emerging within him. As long as the Kyuubi hasn't taken control of him we should have absolutely nothing to fear. Go get yourself a good night's rest, I'll call you and your students in in the morning." With that Jiraiya left the Hokage's Tower and headed back to his house to get started on the latest edition of Icha Icha.

-----

Meanwhile, Hinata and Naruto were enjoying a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's. The Hyuuga heir was on her second bowl while Naruto had already eaten ten himself. Their peace and quiet was broken when Sakura burst into the stand, closely followed by the rest of the rookie nine.

"Naruto! I just got word that you'd returned!"

"Oh, hi Sakura!" Naruto answered in between mouthfuls of rameny goodness.

"Hello Sakura." Hinata added as she politely pushed her now empty bowl away and turned to face her friends.

Sakura looked the two of them over and noticed how much both had changed, "Well now, you two certainly seem different. Did the old pervert finally drive some common sense into that thick skull of yours Naruto?"

"Actually, it was Hinata-chan who did so Sakura." the blonde replied matter-of-factly.

The pink haired chuunin felt a sudden twinge of jealousy well up within her as she finally began to notice little signs: how close the two sat together, how Hinata looked at Naruto, and vice versa. Ino was the first one to say it out loud however, "Oh my god! Hinata, you and Naruto are...are?"

"Yes Ino, Naruto and I are dating."

Everyone present fell over with the exception of Neji, "You do know that Hiashi-sama won't be pleased with that news don't you?"

"Yes I do Neji-niisan, and quite frankly I don't care."

"Let's just see that old fart try anything, and I'll beat him black and blue." Naruto added in a very confident tone.

Everything degraded into chaos after that. Many questions were asked at the same time, giving neither Naruto nor Hinata much of a chance to answer. After a few hours the situation finally calmed down enough for normal conversation to ensue.

"So you and Hinata are going to request that you be put on the same team for future missions Naruto?" Shikamaru asked in his trademark lazy tone.

"Yes Shikamaru. Hinata and I work well together now; we balance each other's strengths and weaknesses perfectly."

"So you say Naruto. I don't know exactly what happened but you should know that Hiashi-sama will never stand for this."

"Neji, for the last time, Hinata and I can take care of ourselves. Hiashi just isn't capable of winning a fight against either one of us now, let alone both of us working together. Hell, Hinata-chan could kick your ass now Neji."

"That I would have to see to believe." came his reply.

Everyone started clamoring for a sparring match between Hinata and Neji following those bold words and soon met up at an empty training ground. It was flat and open, perfect for the Hyuugas' style of combat. Cousins faced each other in the middle of the area while the rest of the rookie nine sat back a safe distance away to watch the fight.

"Hinata, you should still forfeit now. Yes, your skills may have improved, but so have mine."

"Neji, you don't know what I'm capable of now. Let's just get this over with, Byakuugan!"

With that the fight began. Hinata rushed in to slam her open palm into Neji's chest, but was parried by the older boy's left hand. Hinata quickly blocked the counter Neji threw with his right and dropped down to foot sweep him onto his back. As he fell, Hinata quickly somersaulted backwards to give herself some space from Neji.

"Space eh? What good will that do you?"

"This." Hinata started while making a single hand seal, "Kage Bunshin!"

Immediately ten clones appeared and charged in at Neji. As planned, Neji used his Kaiten to quickly dispense with them, but he was unprepared for what happened next. Hinata was right in front of him as soon as the jutsu was finished, slamming both hands into his midsection and sending him flying. Neji got to his feet and looked up to see Hinata coming down towards him while throwing several kunai in his direction.

Neji was forced to use Kaiten once again to deflect the incoming projectiles and once more found himself falling victim to an open palmed strike from Hinata. This time Neji managed to stay on his feet and rushed back towards his younger cousin. He planned to block Hinata's tenketsu but was surprised at the speed she used to quickly duck and come behind him. Neji felt Hinata's knee slam into the back of his skull and fell face first in the dirt. Hinata grabbed his long hair and held his head up, a kunai pressed lightly against his throat.

"See, I'm much better than you give me credit for Neji-niissan." Hinata said sweetly as she then helped him up to his feet.

"So it would seem Hinata-san. You certainly are confident of your abilities now."

"Yes, I have someone who will always believe in me. Naruto and I have worked together extensively over the past two and a half years. Most of our training was spent between just the two of us, sparring and teaching each other various jutsus Jiraiya originally taught us. His plan apparently was to give each of us jutsus that were more suited to the other's style and then have us teach them to each other."

More conversation followed before the group was interrupted by the appearance of Gakimichi. The toad summon notified Naruto and Hinata to meet Jiraiya at the entrance to the Hokage's Tower first thing in the morning and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. The shinobi then went their separate ways as it was getting rather late.

-------

Sakura had decided to walk with Naruto since his apartment was on the way to her house anyways. The two walked in silence for a few minutes before Sakura broke it, "You know, you really have changed quite a bit Naruto."

"How so Sakura?"

"Well, for starters you're certainly not obnoxious anymore. Though I must admit I missed the ways in which you used to attempt to get my attention." Sakura finished blushing.

"I finally saw that it was useless to do so while you were still infatuated with Sasuke. I no longer feel the need to let others think of me as an idiotic failure; I have someone who truly cares for me now."

"But I care for you too Naruto!" Sakura started in protest but was quickly silenced by Naruto's stare.

"Sakura, even now, even though Sasuke has become a traitor to Konoha you still wish to be with him. I'm not stupid you know, I can read between the lines. You always thought of me as nothing more than an annoyance and an obstacle for your plans for Sasuke and yourself."

Sakura was at a loss for words; everything he had just said was the truth, and it stung. Finally Sakura shot back with the only comeback that came to her mind, "Its not like I even have a chance now that you and Hinata are going out."

Naruto looked at Sakura and laughed softly to his self, "There is so much you do not yet know Sakura, but now is neither the time nor the place to get into it." Since he had reached the steps leading up to his apartment by that time Naruto quickly kissed Sakura on the lips and then ran up into his apartment before she even had time to protest. The pink-haired kunoichi stood still for a few minutes in shock and then quickly went back to her house, mind reeling at what had just happened.

----

"You and Naruto are what!?!?"

"Dating." a defiant Hinata replied to her father.

"I absolutely forbid it Hinata; you're a Hyuuga, not some commoner to deal with demon spawn!"

"Naruto is not demon spawn!"

Hiashi stepped back in utter awe at his daughter's sudden change in demeanor. Hinata had activated her Byakuugan and was in a battle stance. The Hyuuga heir's face showed grim determination. "You are willing to throw everything away for that thing?"

"First of all Father," Hinata started in a sneer, "Naruto is not a thing. And secondly I see it that I have everything to gain from this."

Hiashi looked at Neji and Hanabi, both being present and knew he could not lose face in this matter, "Fine, you are no longer a Hyuuga. Get out of my house you little demon whore!"

"Gladly." Hinata answered coldly as she turned away from her father and headed for the door.

Neji ran after Hinata, "Hinata-san, please think about this! You don't know what you're doing!"

"Yes I do Neji: I'm taking my life into my own hands. You should do the same, as should you Hanabi. We can't go on blindly following ancient, outdated customs designed solely to strip us of our individuality and freedom."

-----

The next day all of Konoha heard about the goings on of the previous night at the Hyuuga clan manor. Luckily for Naruto and Hinata they spent most of the morning in the Godaime's office. Tsunade notified the two that they were officially Chuunin as of that day and that they would be a team indefinitely.

Afterwards the two went to the park and were sitting underneath a tree when Neji, Tenten, Lee, Sakura, Ino, and Kiba came up to them to question about what had happened the night prior.

"Hinata-san, where did you go last night?"

"I stayed with Naruto-kun of course Neji."

"Naruto!? You have got to be kidding me!" Kiba muttered.

Sakura looked at her old team mate with concern evident on her face, "Do you know how much clout Hiashi-san has with the Council Naruto?"

"Yeah, I know. He won't get too far though. Tsunade-baachan will make sure of that."

-------

At that moment Tsunade was interrupted from her normal mid-day nap by one Mitarashi Anko bursting into her office, "Tsunade-sama, we have a major problem!"

"Huh? What do you mean major problem, this had better be good!" the Godaime roared, displaying her trademark anger.

"An unidentified person entered Konoha's main gate demanding to see Naruto."

"What's so unusual about that?"

"Hokage-sama, this person is none other than Naruto's uncle."

------------

The arguments between Hinata, Naruto, and their friends was ended abruptly by the sudden appearance of a man who appeared to be in his twenties. He had short cut blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. What really drew attention to himself, however, was his attire: the young man wore a pair of black pants in a style unheard of anywhere before, a crimson red vest that was open with no shirt underneath, and a strange looking hat.

"Uzumaki Naruto I presume." the stranger spoke.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Naruto answered

"We need to talk."

"We talk here and now, what needs to be said can be done in the company of my friends."

"Very well, I am Uzumaki Caleb, your uncle."

------------

"His uncle!?" Jiraiya asked incredulously. Tsunade had gathered the toad sanin and Kakashi in her office to hear Anko's tale as well.

"Yes," Anko answered, "while Arashi kept much of his life before coming to Konoha secret, we do know that he had a rather large family in his homeland."

"How do you know so much Anko?" the question coming from Kakashi this time.

"You forget that he married my sister in secret. I have been...a messenger of sorts for the rest of the Uzumaki clan since then. I had known he would come seeking out his nephew eventually, but I had no idea it would be this soon."

"He's here now obviously. The only question left is what do we do?"

"Jiraiya my old friend, we prepare for one hell of a backlash from pretty much everybody." the Godaime answered.

--------

"Naruto's uncle, suuurrreee." Sakura said, sarcasm plain to see.

The slightly older man now identified as Caleb turned his face towards Sakura, eyes flashing crimson in anger, "I wasn't talking to you, whelp."

"Hey now," Naruto started as he jumped up, "don't you dare call Sakura-chan a whelp!"

"And just what are you going to do about it eh?" Caleb said as he chuckled to himself.

Naruto growled in anger and bum rushed the older man, fully intending to tear that smirk off his face. Instead he found himself clawing at nothing but thin air as he felt a foot slam his back and drive him into the ground.

The blonde shinobi simply jumped up and created five kage bunshins without hand seals, "Let's see you top that!"

Caleb sighed and shook his head as though he had expected better from the chuunin. All five of Naruto's shadow clones were dispatched of at the same time by five kunai formerly belonging to the carrier of the Kyuubi.

Naruto grabbed his kunai pouch and looked at the newcomer with rage evident on his face. No one stole his kunai, no one. The blonde genin pulled out two kunai and quickly threw them at Caleb. He easily dodged them via a side roll to the left. Upon seeing this Naruto simply grinned as his kunai immediately turned towards Caleb once more and continued towards Caleb.

Caleb waited until the last minute to dodge the incoming projectiles and caught them around his pointer and index fingers, "Hmmmm...not bad at all Naruto, but you still have much to learn."

"How did you do that!?"

"Simple, you have only just begun to tap into the skills our clan's bloodline provides us; I've been trained in its use since birth."

"Bloodline? What in the world is he talking about!?" Sakura muttered to herself.

Naruto looked intently at Caleb for a few moments then sighed, "Everyone, I think you should leave for now. Caleb and I need to talk, alone."

The others looked at Naruto suspiciously but took their leave. As she walked past him, Hinata stopped for a moment to cup Naruto's cheek in her right hand. The Hyuuga girl kissed her boyfriend deeply and said, "I'll be waiting for you at home when you get done." Naruto nodded in response and watched as Hinata ran to catch up to the rest of the rookie nine shinobi.

"OK, now I know there's no way you should have been able to stop my kunai. And there's not even a snowball's chance in hell that you could have forced my chakra out of my kunai. What's up with that?"

"It is as I said Naruto: I am your uncle. Without any other members of our family present to teach you in its use, you have much to learn about how to utilize our clan's Bloodline."

"You keep mentioning 'our' clan and Bloodline. What are you talking about?"

"Maybe it would be best if I started off with a little history on the Uzumaki clan in general."

"Yes, that would help."

"Very well. First of all, you should know that these lands are not the only ones in existence. Far off to the east there is another continent. It is there that our clan has its origins. You should notice that our clothing is different, and rightly so. The Uzumaki clan is part of a large temple dedicated to the preservation of the ancient taijutsus of our land. We Uzumaki are monks, teaching others our wisdom and helping to protect others in times of trouble."

"It sounds like the same sort of thing us shinobi do for a living."

"Not so, kit. You see, unlike you shinobi, we monks do not accept any type of payment for our services. Nor do we sell ourselves to the highest bidder."

"Then how do you survive? What about food, clothing, shelter?"

"Each temple is completely self-sufficient. We raise our own crops and herds, make our own clothes, and live off our lands. The monk's main purpose is to live in harmony with the world around us."

"That is quite different from how I grew up. What about chakra and jutsus?"

"Everybody can learn to harness their chakra with the right training. As for jutsus, we don't have exactly what could be considered jutsus amongst the temples. Chakra use is mostly taught to increase speed, agility, and strength. There are a few skills that could be considered jutsus, but they are unique to our clan and don't require any sort of hand seals."

"I see, but how come we have a Bloodline and can do jutsus without any hand seals?"

"That is where our family history gets rather...interesting."

"How so?"

"None of us are purely human Naruto, not even you."

"What do you mean? Of course I'm human!"

"Oh really? Well, I don't think Kyuubi would agree with that at all."

"How in the hell do you know about the Kyuubi!?"

"Do you honestly think that there's only one 'Kyuubi' in the entire world? Kyuubi is just the title your adoptive people have given to a number of Kitsune that just so happened to wander over to this continent over the ages."

"Kitsune?"

"Yes, the one you call the Kyuubi is actually just one Kitsune. Kitsune are a race of beings that can assume three distinct forms: a purely human appearance, a half human half fox form, and finally a fully vulpine form. Most Kitsune are hard to tell apart, in fact they only have one major difference: the number of tails each Kitsune has is different depending on either age, or how powerful they can become."

"How do these Kitsune come into play in our clan?"

"Our clan's founding ancestor, Uzumaki Kino, unwittingly married a female Kitsune. For many years she kept up the ruse but was eventually discovered. Kino-san protected her when the other monks wanted to kill her, this brought about the favor of the rest of the Kitsune. The head of the Kitsune clan made a pact with Kino. The Uzumaki and Kitsune clans have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship ever since. That is also why every single Uzumaki has at least some Kitsune blood running through their veins."

"That's where we get our Bloodline from!" Naruto exclaimed, understanding appearing on his face.

"Yes, we have our Chakra Weaver due to the fact that our lineage is part Kitsune. The more Kitsune blood an Uzumaki has the more powerful his Chakra Weaver abilities will be. Those of us who are at least half Kitsune, such as myself, have a secondary Bloodline ability called the Demon Eye."

"Wait a minute, if you're my uncle, why don't I have the Demon Eye as well?"

"My brother, your father, and I have the same father. After Father's first wife died, he remarried, but this time he married a Kitsune. So its more like I'm your half-uncle if you will."

"Oh, that does make sense."

"Yes, but enough about our family history. You are sorely lacking in your skill with the Chakra Weaver. Its time you learned to harness it to its full potential."

" You're going to train me, aren't you?"

"Yes, and by the time I'm through with you you'll be as good as your father was. But first things first."

With that Caleb pulled Naruto's shirt up to reveal the seal imprisoning the Kyuubi within him. Caleb knelt down and carefully examined the seal for several minutes before nodding to himself and standing back up. "That needs to go; it is an imperfect seal."

"What are you talking about!?" Naruto suddenly yelled, panic showing in his eyes, "I need the Kyuubi in tight spots."

"No you don't, and you were never supposed to have her sealed inside you in the first place. If we don't remove that seal soon, the results will be neither pretty nor pleasant."

"What do you mean?"

"Heh, why not ask her yourself."

Naruto's eyes glazed over slightly as he went to communicate with the Kyuubi. He suddenly found himself in the familiar chamber within his own mind, facing the her cage. To his surprise Caleb was there waiting.

"What are you doing here?"

"All Uzumaki can talk with any Kitsune so sealed. Isn't that right Kitsube-chan?"

A pair of red, glowing eyes suddenly appeared in the cage and a surprised voice spoke, "**Caleb-kun, is it really you?"**

"Yes, Kitsu-chan, its me."

"You two know each other?"

"Yes, Naruto we do. Kitsube and I grew up together until we were ten."

Naruto looked at Caleb as though he were crazy, "But how did she end up here?"

"**I followed your father of course, foolish kit."**

"Yes, Kitsube thought she could convince Arashi to come back to us."

"**And instead I ended up sealed in you!"**

"Well you wouldn't have if you hadn't decided to go on a freaking rampage you damn fox!"

"**You only have your idiot council to blame."**

"What in the Hell are you talking about?"

"**One of your villages shinobi desecrated my den. I simply asked for a formal apology, but those dick heads decided to ignore me instead. I got a little...carried away in my anger."**

"Yes, and then Arashi had no choice but to seal you inside Naruto here to protect you."

"Why would my dad want to protect the fox? And why do you keep calling him Arashi; he was the Fourth after all!?"

"Yes, Arashi was the Fourth Hokage. He was also your father. The sealing technique he used has been a clan secret since its founding. Pity that others have figured out how to even partially copy it at all."

"My dad's the Fourth?" Naruto whispered in disbelief.

"Take a look in the mirror kid. You're the spitting image of him."

"Whatever, look how do we get her out of here then? And what happens to me?"

"This particular variant of the seal was designed for short-term use only. Obviously Arashi didn't plan on dying in the process and was going to release Kitsu-chan later on. To remove her is simple: we transfer the seal to me."

"What!? Is that even possible?"

"Yes it is, but only thanks to our Kitsune heritage. That is why you were chosen to be her vessel: only those of us with Kitsune blood are capable of handling a full nine-tailed Kitsune being sealed within us. And don't worry about your abilities. They'll basically stay the same. You'll keep your quick healing, and your chakra reserves will actually multiply greatly. A good deal of the seal is reliant on your own chakra to keep it intact. You only have everything to gain from this."

"Fine fine, but make it quick Caleb."

Caleb nodded his head in reply as the two found themselves back in the real world. He took off his own shirt and instructed Naruto to do the same. "I'm going to go ahead and use hand seals with this one so that you can see how its done. Chances are that sometime down the road you'll be performing the same jutsu I'm about to do."

Caleb started making a long string of hand seals at full speed. Surprisingly enough Naruto found that he was able to follow them perfectly. Two things were immediately noticeable. One: Naruto's seal started glowing, and Two: he felt extremely nauseous. Soon an exact copy of Naruto's seal appeared on Caleb's stomach and Naruto felt the Kyuubi leave him. The blonde chuunin collapsed onto all fours and vomited.

"The feeling will soon pass; it is a side effect of you and Kitsu-chan having been together for so long."

"So when do we start training?"

"Tomorrow morning. Be prepared for a very long day. Kitsu-chan and I will make sure you don't have any energy left to even take a leak. With our quick recovery times you'll master what you need to soon enough."

Caleb turned to walk away but was halted by Naruto's sudden question, "Where will you be staying?"

"I'm already in the process of finishing up some business Arashi started. One of the empty houses near the major clans' sector was to be our family's new manor. He died before the sale was complete however. After tomorrow you will be moving into your new home."

Caleb turned and casually walked back into Konoha proper. Naruto stared after the older Uzumaki for a few moments before heading back to his apartment to tell Hinata the news. Naruto just knew that the next day was going to be very long indeed.

**To Be Continued!**

Author's Notes: Well now, the story is finally getting to the good stuff. I promise y'all that the next chapter will definitely have more action, not to mention a few surprises, for my faithful readers. Feel free to leave me a personal message if you wish. My email is Oh, and don't forget to review please! Ja ne


	5. Intermission 2

Hey everybody, sorry about the disappearance. I had barely gotten back from one mission for the National Guard before I got deployed to the middle east. Well I'm back now but it'll take me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things. I'll update with a new chapter ASAP though. So please be patient and thanks for all the reviews asking me to continue! 3


	6. Chapter 4

Naruto: Blood of the Kitsune

By: Takenouchi Ryu

**Author's Notes: **Finally, the start of chapter four! I hope you all continue to enjoy my fic.

**Chapter 4**

Naruto awoke early the next morning and had a light breakfast since he had no idea what Caleb had in mind. Hinata told him to be careful as he left their apartment and headed for the training area. The morning was peaceful seeing as how very few people were up yet. Birds could be heard clearly from the forest surrounding Konohagakure.

The blonde chuunin casually walked down the streets, contemplating all that had happened yesterday. He hoped that today would bear more information he could use. Naruto quickly made his way through the mostly empty streets. He paused only once to grab a quick morning snack before resuming his trek to the training ground. The town slowly gave way to the forest surrounding Konoha.

Naruto eventually reached the predesignated training ground and noticed that he was the first one there. While waiting Naruto began his routine of stretching out his muscles and finished up just in time to see Caleb and an unusual young woman walking into the clearing. Caleb was wearing his normal outfit while the woman's clothing could best be described as a bit exotic. She was about as tall as Caleb yet slender, with firey red hair and piercing green eyes. She wore light tan colored pants that went down to mid calf, traditional shinobi sandals, her torso was covered in a sky-blue top that was short-sleeved, and over that was a cream colored vest with no buttons. The woman had her long hair pulled back in a pony-tail and had her hands and entire fore-arms wrapped in white bandages.

"Caleb, who's this?"

"Your other sensei Naruto."

"Why do I need another sensei?"

"Because you are a most annoying whelp of a kit if I ever saw one."

"That voice...I recognize that voice!"

"See Kitsu-chan, I told you he wasn't as dumb as you think."

"True, I'll have to give you credit there Caleb-kun."

Naruto took a few steps back, barely able to comprehend what he was seeing. There before him stood the feared Kyuubi no Kitsune in the flesh! Kyuubi could tell that he was incredibly frightened and used this to her advantage, "First of all let me make this clear Naruto, you will do exactly as we say, is that understood!?"

"Y..yes" Naruto stuttered as best he could.

"Yes what?" fire gleaming in Kyuubi's eyes.

"Yes, Kyuubi-sensei!"

The Kyuubi nodded her head, obviously pleased with hereself and turned to Caleb, "What do you think we should do first?"

"Chakra control definately." then he turned to face the blond shinobi, "Naruto, with our bloodline you shouldn't have any problems with chakra control at all. Its embarassing. I'm going to assume though that this is primarily due to the fact that you were never properly schooled in the Chakra Weaver's usage. Today I plan on fixing that!"

"So its called the Chakra Weaver?"

"Yes, now come over here and sit down. We're going to meditate."

Naruto walked over to where Caleb had indicated and took a seat. He watched as his uncle sat down beside him and mimicked his posture. Naruto tried to clear his mind of all other thoughts as he heard Caleb start speaking.

"With us, chakra control is instinctive. I think your problem is that you've been trying too hard to manually control it. Just relax, feel your chakra flowing through you. Stop trying to control it and control it. Once you reach that point we'll be ready to continue."

"Yes sensei." Naruto answered as he closed his eyes and eventually relaxed completely. The chuunin turned his reflections inward and saw how chaotic his chakra control was. He tried time and again to let the chakra flow by its self, yet this was contrary to all he had ever been taught. After a few hours Naruto finally managed to relinquish control of his chakra to his bloodline and immediately felt the true power he had.

"I feel it!"

"Good, now we can start teaching you how to properly use it." Kyuubi replied.

"And first of all we'll begin by doing away with those bloody hand seals." Caleb added, "They only make your intentions plain to anybody with half a brain. And you don't really need them anyways. You already know the Kage Bunshin by heart. Now I want you to do it. Don't even try to do it, just let the Chakra Weaver do all the work for you."

Naruto nodded his head in answer and stood up. He had to fight off the urge to make the all-too-familiar hand seal the first couple of times. Finally Naruto grinned in triumph as roughly fifty Kage Bunshins stood before him.

"Yes! I'm the greatest!"

"Don't kid yourself yet kiddo. You have only begun to scratch the surface of what the Chakra Weaver is capable of."

"What do you mean Kyuubi-sensei?"

"The lack of handseals is just the beginning. There is so much more it can be used for as well. For instance, back in our clans' homeland every member of the Uzumaki clan is a superb medi-nin as well....the least skilled of the Uzumakis makes Tsunade look like a first day student!"

"No way! Tsunade-baachan is the best ever!"

"Naruto-kun, a medi-nin's abilities lie foremost in his chakra control and reserves. With the insane ammount of chakra we Uzumakis produce, coupled with the perfect instinctive control the Chakra Weaver grants us, we are far better at healing than anybody else." Caleb responded.

"So I'm going to train as a medi-nin now?"

"No kit, you will be given the basic first aid training all Uzumakis receive. Your strengths lie in your ability to use the Chakra Weaver inventively."

"Yes Naruto-kun," Caleb continued, "You have already, and on your own no less!, mastered the art of using the Weaver to infuse objects with your chakra and thus control them. Not many of our clan are actually able to do that. So first of all we're going to work on that. I want your end result to be that you can use enough chakra infused kunai to create a sphere around yourself and keep it rotating; a very good and effective defensive technique your father originally mastered."

"How long will that take?" Naruto asked.

"Only as long as you make it take. The Chakra Weaver makes it incredibly easy for us to learn various techniques since we can easily manipulate the chakra needed. All you need is faith in yourself."

"Yes Caleb-sensei."

"Good, now you begin kit!"

For the next several hours Naruto was forced to use more and more kunai with his Bloodline ability. The going was certainly tough and the blonde Chuunin was pushed to his limits many times over. During that time though Naruto learned how to use his kunai in various ways. From his already self-styled Homing Kunai technique to infusing them with his wind based chakra to create deep slices and gashes in a rock, to using his chakra to have mutiple kunai line up point to end to make a sort of sword that rotated at a rapid velocity.

As Naruto was forced to think more and more outside of the box he found that, true to Caleb's promise, his own reserves seemed to have gone up quite a bit. Thus the Chuunin was able to handle more and more kunai at one time. Naruto even figured out how to pull off a few new tricks but chose to keep them up his sleeve as a surprise to Caleb later, especially since the best he could manage by the end of their training session was only a half a sphere.

Around sunset Caleb called for a halt in the day's activities and had the three of them sit down to a snack of rice balls and water. Naruto easily gulped down half of them at one time and bleched rather loudly, leaving his uncle and the Kyuubi looking at him in a very perturbed manner.

"What?"

"Kit, you have worse manners than the entire council of Konohagakure put together!"

"Ummm...I'm sorry?" Naruto semi-asked as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"New rule Naruto-kun, you will have better manners from now on, got it?"

"Yes Caleb-sensei."

The three spent the rest of the day discussing various things Naruto would learn in time. After he showed enough proficiency in the use of the Weaver he would move on to justsus he wished to use sans seals. After that he would start learning how to make his own seals to various effects. There was also talk of the Uzumaki clan's own personal style of taijutsu along with its preferred weapons and the Uzumaki summoning contract with the kitsune.

"You mean our clan has a summon contract with the kitsune!?"

"Yes kit. For those of the Uzumaki clan who take a kitsune as their spouse there is no need for those two are evermore teamed up together. For those who don't, however, there is the summon contract. It is quite different from most other summoning contracts. For one you don't have to shed blood to summon the kitsune. Neither is it random in which kitsune you get. You will be paired with a particular kitsune of like temperment, strength, ability, and potential and the two of you will be expected to grow together and learn to depend upon one another."

"Yes. To call forth your kitsune partner you have but to think of him or her and the kitsune will answer your call. Part of the contract is a bonding of the minds so that no matter where either of you are the other will be able to come to your aid in a moment's notice and be aware of your partner's status at all times. It is quite useful for missions where you might be sent far from the temple, or, in our case, the village. You also don't have to worry about the quality of your summon being based upon how much chakra you pump into the summoning since you and your partner will have trained together extensively and be evenly matched in power. Hmmmm...at your current level you will be given a relatively young kitsune, one with only three tails, but yours will most likely be a kitsune with the potential to grow all nine possible tails in your time together." Caleb expounded.

"Ok....what do you mean our time together though Caleb-sensei?"

"Your average kitsune can live hundreds of years, thousands even, so its only natural that your partner will outlive you. Although our own life-span is close to two or three-hundred years all depending on how well we take care of ourselves and how much kitsune blood runs through our veins."

"Ah, I think I follow you."

After this discourse Kitsube turned to face Caleb, "I do believe my sister Kishu would make a fine match for the kit here. She is around his level in power, follows the same general thought processes and should have attained her third tail by now?" the Kyuubi finished her statement with a question at Caleb.

"Yes, you are right Kitsu-chan. After we finish setting up the seals around the new clan manor and get Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan moved in we can arrange for them to meet Kishu-chan."

"Seals?" Naruto queried.

"Yes, among other things the clan manor will have a powerful seal set into the foundation that will prevent any unauthorized access to our grounds. There are two ways a person might be granted entrance into our home: a temporary and a long term permanent access. The temporary is realitvely simple. One skilled enough will use our seal designed to take a miniscule sample of the person's chakra and imprint it upon the seal as being 'friendly.' The long term version is the same thing except that it is permanent unless the modification to the seal is removed. The other long term access is done only with your wife. Upon marriage you are to bite her on the neck, just under the jaw bone. Now that will leave a scar but it also leaves a perpetual imprint of your own chakra on her and thus allow the seal to recognize her as part of the family. This normally isn't done back home since the seal already recognizes all members of the Uzumaki and kitsune clans still living, but here you will have to do that to ensure easier access to your future wife's home."

"Gotcha. Will I ever be able to make the changes to this seal myself?"

"In time kit. You do not yet possess the necessary skill with which to do it but you will be able to after your training is complete." Kitsube answered.

"What am I going to do with Hinata though? I mean I know I want to be with her always but I don't think its the right time yet to discuss that with her. And she has nowhere else to go. She has to stay with us."

"I'll make a permanent change to the seal to allow her entrance. Also, any of your friends that you can trust enough will be added to the access list of the seal." Caleb answered.

After this Caleb informed Naruto to go home and pack his and Hinata's belongings and be ready to move out. There would be no need to bring what little furniture he had with him seeing as how the clan manor was already furnished. Caleb gave Naruto the address and told him to be there as soon as possible and that as part of his training he would move their luggage via the Weaver only. Furthermore, he was to keep the bags at least two feet off the ground and try not to let them touch the ground at all during the walk to the manor.

As soon as he was dismissed, Naruto made his way back to what had been his home for the past fourteen years of his life. Hinata looked up happily as she heard the door open and saw a very worn out Naruto walking in.

"Naruto-kun! How did your training go?"

"I'm telling you Hinata-chan, that Caleb is a worse slave-driver than even Ero-sanin!"

Hinata couldn't help but laugh at that remark and motioned him over to the table. The blonde chuunin noticed that his girlfriend had prepared a scrumptious supper for the two of them. Naruto eagerly sat down and the two of them enjoyed their dinner. To Naruto's liking it was a simple meal consisting of rice balls, fresh yakiniku, and a salad. The meal lasted approximately thirty-five minutes and the two spent another ten cleaning up. Following that Naruto informed Hinata that they would be moving that night.

"But where are we going to go Naruto-kun?"

"According to Caleb, my father had been in the middle of purchasing a clan manor for my family when he was forced to seal Kyuubi inside me and thus died. Caleb finished it today and we're moving in tonight. After we pack up our clothing and any other belongings we want to bring we are to head over to this address."

Naruto handed Hinata the address that Caleb had given him at the end of his training. Hinata looked at it for a moment, dumbfounded. She looked up at her boyfriend, back down to the paper, and then back up at Naruto once again, astonishment plain on her face.

"Naruto-kun, do you have any idea where this manor is located?"

"No Hina-chan, but why does it matter? Home is home after all."

Hinata smiled a bit at the small amount of naievete that Nautro still possessed and looked into his eyes smilin, "Naruto-kun, this adress is right in the middle of the neighborhood housing all the major clans in Konoha!"

"No way! How is that possible!?" Naruto's eyes were wide in surprise.

"I don't know Naruto-kun. I mean we don't even know who your father was."

Naruto suddenly looked in any direction except at Hinata's face as she finished speaking. He wasn't quite sure how to break the news to her. The blonde shinobi could barely absorb that particular bit of information himself. How was he to explain it to his girlfriend? After spending a few seconds considering all the options Naruto opted for the truth.

"Hinata-chan, I think I can explain but first we need to get to our new home."

"Ok, I'll go and start packing our clothes. I'm sure you have a few other things here that you want to pack up as well."

"Yeah, I do. Just let me know when you're ready to leave and we'll head out."

The two leaf nin quickly packed up all the belongings they felt that they would need. Naruto and Hinata walked out of the apartment that had been his home for as long as he could remember. This was it, there was no going back now. The blonde chuunin looked over at his girlfriend and knew that he was doing the right thing. She deserved so much more than the dingy apartment behind them. "Let's go Hinata-chan." Naruto said and went down to the street.

Hinata and Naruto walked slowly towards their new home. Hinata going slowly to take it all in, and Naruto partly because it was a bit difficult even with all his chakra to carry his and Hinata's luggage at the same time. The former jinchuuriki silently cursed all females for packing way too much stuff every time they went somewhere. The walk was quiet for the most part. Very few people were out this late in the evening, and those that were simply went about their own business.

The two shinobi were roughly halfway to their destination when a voice called out from the other side of the street, "Hey trash! Its such a pity to see one so high fall so low Hinata." Both turned their heads towards the voice and noticed that the person speaking was a Hyuuga jonin. Hinata grabbed Naruto's arm and gently tugged on him, whispering that they should just keep going. Naruto shook his head and took a step towards the Hyuuga.

"Call Hinata-chan trash again and see what happens." the blonde chuunin growled in warning.

"Naruto, come on, let's just go. We're almost there."

"Oh come now Hinata, the demon brat wants to defend your honor. I say let him. Then I'll show you just how weak and pathetic he really is, hehehehe."

That statement royally pissed the raven haired girl and she looked at her boyfriend, "On second thought Naruto-kun, kick his ass."

"I thought you'd never ask." Naruto replied with his trademark foxy grin as he turned his attention once more to the Hyuuga jonin in front of them. "You made one serious mistake here fool; you called Hinata trash!"

With that Naruto rushed in and pulled out a kunai in each hand. The Hyuuga smiled coldly and activated his Byakugan. "We'll see about that demon trash!" The jonin started off with attempting a palm thrust to Naruto's midsection, which he simply dodged by turning his body to one side. The chuunin countered that by using the momentum of his sudden turn to aim a roundhouse kick at the arrogant Hyuuga's head. Said nin parried it and used his free hand to palm thrust Naruto in the stomach. This was quickly followed up with another strike aimed at his heart. Naruto quickly jumped back a few feet and shook his head at the enemy.

"I don't think so, you'll find that your attacks are less than useless on me."

This declaration only served to enrage the Hyuuga and he ran in, fully intending on killing Naruto then and there. The fight quickly escalated with each shinobi blocking and throwing parried counters at the other. A few minutes into the fight Naruto switched it up by turning his kunais' blades toward the Hyuuga and rushing in with a horizontal swipe at the jonin's chest. The jonin looked to be in shock at the fact that he was actually wounded.

"Why you little bastard!"

Naruto only hmphed as he licked the blood off the kunai and then quickly threw it at his opponent. The Hyuuga deflected it with a Kaiten just as Naruto wanted. As soon as the Hyuuga stopped spinning he found himself face-to-face with Naruto. The blonde only grinned and pointed behind the Hyuuga. He looked behind himself and saw a veritable wall of kunai floating mere inches behind him, far too close for him to have any chance of using a Kaiten again.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you here and now."

"Go ahead you demon; just get it over with." the Hyuuga spat at Naruto.

"No; you're not worth it scum." Naruto to said and walked away towards where Hinata was standing. His kunai moving in a straight line back into his kunai pouch. Once the last one was out of the way the Hyuuga rushed up behind Naruto yelling "Die you demon bastard!" From that point everything seemed to go in slow motion as Naruto turned around to see the Hyuuga with kunai raised and ready to strike. Hinata started to scream just as the weapon was about to plunge into Naruto's chest, only to be stopped by an arm reaching out and stopping the Hyuuga mid-swing.

"Now you wouldn't be trying to kill my nephew would you?" Caleb whispered coldly in the Hyuuga's ear.

"Yes, that would be...hazardous to your health and ability to sire offspring" Kyuubi whispered as well, sidling up to the Hyuuga's other side.

"I suggest you leave...now!" was all Caleb needed to say to cause the Hyuuga jonin to flee in terror.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as Hinata grabbed him and held him tightly, relieved that her boyfriend was alright. Caleb walked over to where the two love birds were shaking his head.

"Amazing and sad that your Hokage allows people such as that to live."

"And you wonder why I attacked this village Naruto? Hah!"

The blonde simply shook his head, "There is good and bad in all of us and in everything. Just let him go and ignore him. That baka just isn't worth our time. I'd much rather get this stuff over to the house and get settled in for the night."

Caleb looked over and saw that the luggage was still being manipulated by Naruto's chakra, albeit the suitcases were shaking a bit. "You managed to keep those suitcases floating and fight at the same time Naruto?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Hmmm.....you're improving faster than we'd thought you would kit...I guess its time to ramp up your training a bit."

"Yes, I do believe you're right Kitsu-chan. Well now, I think you've had enough for the day. I'll take your belongings the rest of the way. Once there you and Hinata can choose your own rooms and get settled in. Tomorrow we'll begin the next round of training."

Naruto nodded his head to show that he understood and the four of them made their way the next few blocks to the Uzumaki manor. Upon reaching the gates Naruto and Hinata both stared in awe at the large compound before them. It was completely unlike anything either had ever seen before. Even for Hinata, who by virtue of her being from one of Konoha's main clans, had never seen a manor this large before. Her eyes turned into wide saucers while Naruto's jaw dropped open and drool could be seen running down one corner of his mouth.

"Pick your jaw up kit, this is nothing. If you want to see a real mansion, grow strong enough to make the trip to your ancestral homeland and see the Uzumaki temple there. Now that is a house!"

Naruto and Hinata turned to look at Kyuubi slowly, as if they had just learned of their own deaths. The two chuunin stood stock still for a moment before passing out from the sheer enormity of what the kitsune had just said. A house larger than this one? Impoosible! As the two started to slump down onto the ground Caleb and Kyuubi caught them and carried the two into their new home.

"Now Kitsu-chan, you know better than to shock the poor kids like that."

"But Caleb-kuuunn...it was fun!" Kyuubi replied with the sad puppy dog eyes all girls the world over are famous for.

"Gah! Enough already! You win. Now help me get these two into their rooms."

"Hmmm...why not just make it room instead of rooms?" the kitsune said while grinning mischeviously, "It'll be well worth it to see the looks on their faces when these two wake up!"

"Why did I have a feeling you would say something like that? I guess you're right. It would be funny and, hell, these two need to grow up anyways."

With that Caleb and the Kyuubi took the two up into a room on the second floor of the manor. It was a rather large room, with two walk-in closets, a large desk for writing and studying at, a king sized bed in one corner, an extra large chester drawer and dresser dominating one wall, and an extremely large window with a cape cod style seat in it. After placing the two in the bed, Caleb and Kitsube (Yay, we finally figure out the Kyuubi's real name! =P ) unpacked Hinata and Naruto's clothing and put them away. Afterwards, the two older people went down to the kitchen to have some tea and discuss the training regimen for the next day.

"Well Caleb-kun, it seems that Naruto really is his father's son."

"Yes he is. I just hope he's able to take all this news with how suddenly it was thrust upon him."

"He'll manage. He was able to deal with having me in his head for the past fifteen years and the hatred of most of the village after all. That says a lot right there."

"True true, he'll do the Uzumaki clan proud, I know it."

"First we have to make sure he and Hinata are ready to deal with Akatsuki when they come for him though."

"That's right. I don't know much about this Akatsuki seeing as how I just arrived in these lands a few days ago. Care to explain?"

Kitsube sighed and then nodded her head, "It's a long explanation, but you'll get it alright. Essentially, what's going on is...."

The two talked for hours about the situation with Akatsuki and how best to deal with them. Caleb and Kitsube tossed ideas back and forth all night long, well into the wee hours of the morning. It was around three in the morning when the two finally called it a night and went to sleep in their own room.

**To Be Continued!**

**A/N: **Well folks, this was my first chapter up in quite a while no? It feels good to be home and back in the swing of things again...well mostly that is! =P I hope to get the next chapter up my mid January as long as things keep going smoothly for me. As always please read and review, and if you have any comments you wish to make to me directly...other than begging me to pair up the Kyuubi with Naruto that is (she's mine...all mine...you can't have her!)....feel free to email me at Until next time, happy reading


	7. Chapter 5

Naruto: Blood of the Kitsune

By: Takenouchi Ryu

**Author's Notes: **Finally, the start of chapter five! I hope you all continue to enjoy my fic.

**Chapter 5**

"WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Caleb and Kitsube woke up to the sound of Hinata and Naruto's combined scream of surprise. The kyuubi grinned devilishly at Caleb, "See? I told you it would be worth it!" At this the elder Uzumaki only shook his head and got out of bed and started getting dressed. The two ran down the hall to the young Chuunins' bedroom. Upon reaching said room Kitsube dropped to the floor, holding her sides and rolling around in laughter; Caleb himself could not help but chuckle at the sight. There was a very embarrassed Naruto wearing nothing but his boxers in one corner of the room and a beet red Hinata holding a blanket up to herself to cover up the fact that she was only in her panties and chest wrappings.

"What the hell happened last night!?" a very confused Naruto roared, looking at his uncle with suspicion.

"We figured...hahahah...that since...hahahaha!....you and Hinata had spent the past few years together you wouldn't mind sharing a room kit" the kyuubi answered while laughing.

"You damn fox! I'll get you for this!" Naruto yelled and chased after Kitsube with murder in his eyes.

For the next half hour or so the sounds of pursuit could be heard even outside the Uzumaki clan manor as Naruto attempted unsuccessfully to catch Kitsube and make her pay for her prank. It eventually ended in the four of them sitting down at the kitchen table eating breakfast and planning their day.

"Naruto, Kitsu-chan and I have to go see the Godaime today, most likely because your village council wants to know whether or not we can be controlled. Be forewarned that we might need to call you and Hinata in to help with that situation. After that I was thinking we could go get some supplies we'll need as long as we don't have a mission coming up."

"Sounds good to me Caleb, I wonder what rank they'll give you since you're at least on par with a Jonin if not stronger."

"I don't think Tsunade-sama will just give them Jonin rank Naru-kun, at least not right away. I suspect they'll be made Chuunin like us." Hinata replied.

"That is true Hinata-chan, Caleb and myself will petition the Godaime to be placed on your team as well. That way you two can continue your training and give us plenty of time to catch up. I can't wait to see the looks on the council's faces when they hear about me!" Kyuubi giggled.

After breakfast Caleb and Kitsube made their way to the Hokage Tower and reported in. The two were brought up to the waiting room and told to stay put until called for by Tsunade. Monk and kitsune waited approximately half an hour before being summoned into the room. Upon entering it they stood before the Godaime's desk as she looked over some papers.

"So you are Naruto's uncle eh?" Tsunade started.

"Yes, I am. I have come here to finish Naruto-kun's training and help him prepare for whatever may lay ahead as well as finish up the work my brother Arashi started when he first came here."

"I see. I can't help but notice that you are accompanied by a young female and the reports said you came here alone though..." Tsunade let the question hang in the air.

"Ah yes, Kitsu-chan here. Let's just say she was causing Naruto a lot of grief so I took it upon myself to correct the situation." was Caleb's cryptic reply.

"Causing Naruto grief? How so?"

"Well you see, when Arashi left he hadn't quite mastered our clan's sealing technique for sealing the souls of kitsune into members of our clan, ergo the seal he placed on Naruto wasn't perfect and was in fact deteriorating."

With that Tsunade jumped up ready to fight, "You mean to tell me you've released the Kyuubi!"

Caleb stepped protectively in front of his mate, "Not quite entirely, Kitsu-chan is still bound to me as she was with Naruto; however, the true seal allows her access to the outside world and her own body."

"That demon tried to destroy Konoha!"

"Actually, I only wanted your council dead for not having the proper manners to apologize when they desecrated my den. It's not my fault you idiots launched your entire army at me en masse and tried to kill me. What else was I supposed to do? Let you just kill me? Of course I defended myself!" Kitsube retorted in a sweet manner.

Tsunade paused for a moment and slowly relaxed ever so slightly, "What do you mean the council never apologized?"

"I was in my den, just finished mind you, when some dumb-ass wearing a Konoha head band came in muttering something about roots or some shit like that and saw me. He immediately tried to capture me and in the process made my cozy little den completely uninhabitable. So I killed him, and sent him back to you all with a note explaining perfectly clearly what had happened and that I felt I should receive an apology."

"Hmmm....that's odd. The council never got such a message. You're sure this shinobi was saying root?"

"Yes, quite clearly I might add."

That was the frosting on the proverbial cake for Tsunade; she knew just who caused the attack to take place and quickly became extremely pissed off, "Daaaaannnnnzzzzzzzzooooouuuuuu!!!!!! I'll kill you you power-hungry bastard!"

Meanwhile a few miles away the leader of ROOT looked up as the hairs on his neck tingled with ominous doom. Shrugging it off to being the paranoid idiot he was, Danzou just went back to reading his copy of the latest Icha Icha book.

After fuming for a good fifteen minutes the Godaime finally calmed down enough to speak again, "In that case, I know its late, but on behalf of Konohagakure I apologize for what that idiot did."

"Accepted but with one condition: you tell me who this Danzou is and where I can find him. I have a bone to pick with the bastard." Kitsube replied while smiling a bit sadistically.

"Danzou is a bit of a rebel you might say," started Tsunade's response, "He has his own private group of fanatically loyal subordinates that agree with his ideas of how Konoha should be lead. He's been a thorn in the side of every Hokage since Arashi. As far as where he is I'm not sure. He keeps moving around, making it harder to keep track of just where he lives."

"Very well," Caleb interjected, "we'll accept that answer for now. Back to the business at hand though, what do you plan to do with us?"

"Well, you have come here to Konoha, finished purchasing your late brother's house, and have a nephew in our ranks. We can't just let you go freelance and let other villages know about Naruto's clan based abilities now can we? The only option I have is to make you a Konoha shinobi as well. The only problem is rank. I can't just make you Jonin even though both of you are obviously much stronger, and it wouldn't be fair to have you start off as Genin either. I can give you two options: Chuunin, or Special Jonin. The differences being that a Special Jonin doesn't always go out on missions, they spend most of their time teaching other shinobi."

"Chuunin definitely, I refuse to be stuck teaching a bunch of morons." Kitsube replied immediately.

"Me too Godaime-sama. I would much rather be on Naruto's team so I can keep an eye on him just in case these Akatsuki characters I keep hearing about decide to show up."

"Very well, I'll have Shizune do the paperwork. The four of you are to report to my office tomorrow morning to receive your first mission."

"Hai Godaime-sama, arigato."

With that Caleb and Kitsube left the office in a swirl of flame and headed off to find Naruto and Hinata. Tsunade plopped down into her seat and uncorked the nearest bottle of sake only to find it empty. "Shizune! I need more sake!" The Hokage's assistant only popped her head in to nod and then left, knowing that her master was having a very bad week.

Caleb and Kitsube walked through the streets of Konoha wearing their new headbands and Chuunin vests looking for Naruto and Hinata. They found the two soon after in an open air farmer's market. Hinata and Naruto currently perusing the stands for fresh vegetables and fruits.

"Yo Naruto, you better hurry with that; we have to go supply shopping soon."

The blond Chuunin turned around and saw his uncle standing there, "So I take it your meeting with Tsunade-baachan went well?"

"You could say that kit. We have our first mission tomorrow, so we need to get ready."

"Good luck on your first mission Kitsube-san." Hinata replied.

"You mean you hope we all have good luck tomorrow Hinata. The four of us are now one team." Caleb said.

"So everything went according to your plans then Caleb-san?" Naruto queried.

"Yes. Now then we need to get a lot of scrolls, kunai, shurikens, smoke bombs, and this list of ingredients." Caleb answered handing Naruto a list of various botanical compounds.

Naruto scanned the list and then looked up at his uncle with a quirked eyebrow. The list itself was very unusual in deed. Upon seeing his nephew's reaction Caleb simply nodded his head. After this the four of them split up the responsibilities and set off to their respective shops. Right before splitting the four agreed to meet back at the manor two hours from their present time.

Exactly two hours later Naruto, Hinata, Caleb, and Kitsube met back up at their home's front gate. Each one holding one or more large bags filled with the necessary equipment. They went in and Caleb led them into a large room he had converted into a workshop. One corner had been turned into a miniature blacksmith's shop, perfect for making weapons at home. Another section had a long, smooth worktable with ink bottles and brushes lined up neatly for making sealing scrolls. The opposite wall housed what looked like an apothecary's dream shop: mortar and pestle of the finest stone, a stove with precise temperature controls, storage racks for fresh, dried, and pureed compounds, and all the proper tools for home compounding of the pharmaceutical grade. Hinata and Naruto stood there with wide eyes and their jaws hanging down to the floor at the chamber before them.

"Pick your jaws up off the floor, we have a lot of work to do before we can get any sleep." Caleb said; he then pointed at the table with ink and brushes, "Kitsu-chan, take Hinata and get those sealing scrolls ready; standard kunai scrolls. Naruto, you're with me, I'm going to show you how to make the Uzumaki clan's special soldier pills; they're designed just for us."

Hinata and Kitsube got started on the scrolls, laying them out one at a time. Kitsube showed Hinata the exact seals needed to make them work, doing the first three with painstaking care and precision. She then helped Hinata with her first few, making sure Hinata was not making any mistakes. Afterwards, the two each worked on a scroll by themselves, slowly but surely preparing every single blank scroll they had bought earlier that day.

Meanwhile Caleb was instructing Naruto in the art of compounding. He started by showing Naruto exactly which ingredients were needed and how much would be used per batch by weight. Once that was completed the two started grinding the herbs with the mortar and pestles and then poured the contents into a pot on the built in stove, setting a precise temperature of 433 degrees. The concoction boiled for fifteen minutes and then was immediately removed from heat before being poured slowly into a pre-set mold that would shape the pills as they cooled. Each batch yielded a dozen soldier pills that would help the body naturally rebuild the shinobi's chakra reserves. This being far superior to the average soldier pills used by other Konoha ninja that only artificially boosted their chakra for a limited time.

Once these initial steps were completed the two groups reconverged at a central table in the middle of the room. Kitsube laid out one of the scrolls on the table and then Caleb carefully piled up a stack of fifty kunai. Once that was done Caleb focused some chakra into the scroll and the seals went to work, the scroll effectively absorbing the kunai and glowing faintly once finished. Kitsube worked quickly, carefully rolling the scroll around a wooden rod and taping it shut with a piece of red tape. This went on until there were about sixty such scrolls each for kunai and shuriken.

Caleb and Kitsube then went back to the apothecary's table and set up several first aid kits which were summarily put into their own sealing scrolls, these ones differentiated by the sky blue tape used to keep them closed. After this was finished the four of them worked together to put the scrolls in four sets of bandoleers that would go around the the chest. The four then went into the living room area and laid all their gear out for the next day.

Naruto had a bandoleer holding nothing but kunai scrolls as well as his normal kunai pouch along with a pouch holding several soldier pills. Caleb had a similar set-up as Naruto where as Kitsube's bandoleer consisted almost entirely of first aid scrolls with a few shuriken scrolls added for good measure. Hinata's gear consisted of a belt that held a few kunai scrolls and soldier pills in addition to her normal kunai pouch. After this was finished the four gathered around the dining room table for tea and to discuss strategy.

"My first question is who do you think will be made squad captain?" Hinata mused between sips of green tea.

"There's no telling really. Kitsu-chan and myself have only just come to Konoha while you and Naruto are veteran shinobi." Caleb answered.

"Yes, but you two are obviously stronger and have more experience than either of us." came Naruto's counter.

"Ah kit, but you forget, with Konoha those who have been members of the village longest get the most trust, so it'll most likely be yourself or Hinata." Kitsube replied.

"True enough Kitsube-san. At least from the gear we have we can pretty much figure out our roles on the mission. You will be our main medical specialist. Caleb-san and myself will be the primary combatants with you Hina-chan providing support and back-up."

"Hai Naru-kun, with my Byakugan I'll be best suited giving you a heads up when our enemies try to surprise us."

"Naruto you and I are best suited for the front lines with our bloodlines. The enemy won't be able to cope with our combined power. Kitsu-chan will be with us as well even though her primary position will be as healer. Her immense chakra reserves as a kitsune will enable her to quickly heal any injuries the opposition somehow manages to inflict on us."

The group stayed up late into the night planning and preparing themselves for the next day. They finally trudged off to bed to catch a few hours sleep in the wee hours of the morning. Dawn came all to early for the four of them, but t hey forced themselves to get up and get ready. They had a quick and simple breakfast before donning their gear and making their way to the Hokage tower to receive their mission assignment.

The early morning sun was warm and energizing, with not a cloud in the sky as they walked through the emptiness of the early morning streets. Few people were up and about at this time of day, lending the four some peace and quiet as they mentally prepared themselves for their mission. Knowing their combined power each expected to be given at least a B level mission if not an A. Soon enough they reached the tower and went inside.

"Ah, you're here on time." Tsunade started, "The mission I have for you will prove adequate for evaluating your skills individually and as a team I hope."

"What's our mission Tsunade-baachan?"

"There have been reports of a band of thieves led by a missing nin from Suna. By all accounts they are ruthless maniacs who take great pleasure in torturing their victims to death before making off with anything valuable that they can find. Needless to say we must stop them at all costs. They are terrorizing the villages around us with no end in sight. Your mission is to eliminate this threat once and for all. Naruto, you will be the team leader of this assignment."

"Rest assured Hokage-sama we will stop these miscreants." Kitsube answered.

"Very well, you have your orders. Ninja....Scramble!"

With that the four disappeared in a swirl of leaves or fire, reappearing at the main gate. They double-checked their gear before nodding to one another and leaving Konoha. Naruto, Hinata, Caleb, and Kitsube headed off in an easterly direction, towards the last known sighting of the bandits. Their first order of business would be to gather what information they could and then develop a battle plan to deal with the threat. After that a simple return trip to Konoha to make their report. Each was sure the mission would be simple enough, or so they hoped.

**Author's Notes: **Well everybody that concludes the latest chapter of my fanfic! Next time the mission commences and we'll see just what is in store for Naruto and company. As always please read and review. If you wish to make any comments to me directly email me at and make sure you include the name of my story in the subject line so I don't mistake your email for more spam. Ja ne!


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